Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail

A Walk through History:

The 450-mile foot trail that became known as the Natchez Trace was the lifeline through the Old Southwest. You can experience portions of that journey the way earlier travelers did - on foot. Today there are five separate trails totaling over 60 miles and they are administered by the Natchez Trace Parkway.

16 Feb 2022

See Natchez Trace Parkway

22 Feb 2020

See Natchez Trace Parkway

2 Sept 2018
After taking in the Natchez Parkway Visitors Center, we headed to a small section of the original Trail. When we take in the Parkway, we will piggyback visits to the trail as it follows the Parkway.

Click here for photos of our visit

NPS Website

Our 131st NPS Unit

Natchez Trace Parkway

A Drive through 10,000 Years of History:

The Natchez Trace Parkway is a 444-mile recreational road and scenic drive through three states. It roughly follows the "Old Natchez Trace" a historic travel corridor used by American Indians, "Kaintucks," European settlers, slave traders, soldiers, and future presidents. Today, people can enjoy not only a scenic drive but also hiking, biking, horseback riding, and camping along the parkway.

Feb 16, 2022, Mile 68 - 104

Today we took in another section of the Parkway, starting were we left off last trip. there is not as much to see along this portion of the Parkway. We stopped at a few turnouts along this section including a few old stand sites and Civil War sites. We made a stop at the Clinton Mississippi Visitor Center. There is a small Museum detailing the area around Clinton. We then made a stop at the Mississippi Arts Center. We enjoyed seeing all the local art. This concluded our trip for the day, we still have much more to see on the Parkway and will continual this trip later.

Feb 22, 2020, Mile 0 - 67

Took in the first 67 miles today. First stopping at Mount Locust Inn. Mount Locust is one of the few remaining stands remaining on the Parkway. Stands were the B&B's of the time offering a place to sleep and eat on the walk up the Trace. We next made a stop at the Emerald Mound. Emerald Mound is the largest known mound made by the native people of the area, we continued on to the Sunken Trace. This is an area of the Trace that is highly eroded due to the sheer numbers of travelers on the trace. After the Sunken Trace we made our way up to Owens Creek waterfall. We were lucky in our timing as this waterfall normally offers very little to no flow but due to the heavy rain, we got to see it flowing much the way it did back in the days of the Trace being active. We had a great day traveling the Parkway and look forward to adding more sections.

Sept 2, 2018, Mile 260 - 266

While exploring the Tupelo Mississippi area we got to take in a small section of the Parkway. We took in the Visitor Center at Tupelo (Mile 266). Great Visitor center that not only serves the Parkway but also the Tupelo and Brice's Crossroads Battle Fields. We have this down as a return trip to drive the entire Parkway.

Click here for photos of our visit Sept 2 2018

Click here for photos of our visit Feb 22 2020

NPS Website

Our 130th NPS Unit

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

Poverty Point NM

Follow In the Footsteps of Ancient Engineers:

Now a nearly forgotten culture, Poverty Point at its peak 3,000 years ago was part of an enormous trading network that stretched for hundreds of miles across the continent. It was - and is - also an engineering marvel, the product of five million hours of labor. Explore the culture of a highly sophisticated people who left behind one of North America’s most important archeological sites.

1 Feb 2022

This site is operated by the State of Louisiana. We headed to the Visitors Center and took in all the exhibits. The exhibits were very educational and told the history of this area very well. We also took in the movie that is offered at the Visitors Center. After taking in all that the Visitors Center had to offer, we headed out to take the 2.4-mile loop road around the site. We stopped at a few of the mounds and walked to the top of the largest mound "A". While driving the loop we were treated to a wildlife encounter of a family of racoons. This was an amazing site and hard to comprehend the amount of work it took to build these mounds and ridges. We spent 3 hours here.